Before the 2016 presidential race, Bernie Sanders exuded some charm as an unapologetic lefty with a Brooklyn accent. But when his campaign gained traction, the authoritarian took over. Unwilling to concede that Democratic primary voters preferred Hillary Clinton to him -- she had amassed nearly 4 million more votes -- he continued to undermine her all the way up to the party convention. Without a doubt, he helped elect Donald Trump.Thursday, February 21, 2019

There are two diametrically opposed lines of thinking about Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The first is that he is winding down his probe and is unlikely to allege that the Trump campaign and Russia conspired to fix the 2016 presidential election. The second is that he is still going strong, with the biggest charges, perhaps including the fabled collusion allegation, yet to come.Wednesday, February 20, 2019

One of the many casualties of the modern age is the substitution of Presidents Day for the annual celebration of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12 and of George Washington on Feb. 22 -- two dates that every American schoolchild once knew, marking the births of two presidents every American schoolchild once revered.Tuesday, February 19, 2019

On account of the president's cowardly retreat from the wall, Ann Coulter is too angry to type. In her place, we present a guest columnist outraged at the president's capitulation.Saturday, February 16, 2019

Outsize attention has been paid to outlier Democrats making outrageous remarks. They are a small handful of House Democrats, though you'd never know it, given all their headlines.Friday, February 15, 2019

Yes, Democrats want to start a new investigation into already-under-investigation Trump-Russia allegations. And yes, they want to investigate Trump associates like Michael Cohen, Roger Stone and others. But by far the biggest thing Democrats want, now that they have the majority in the House, is to get their hands on the president's tax returnsThursday, February 14, 2019

In the middle of the first presidential impeachment trial, of Andrew Johnson in 1868, Walt Whitman wandered over to Capitol Hill to witness the proceedings. "Our American politics," the poet told a friend, "are in an unusually effervescent condition."Monday, February 11, 2019

(AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts broke with the Supreme Court’s other conservative justices and his own voting record on abortion to block a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.Saturday, February 9, 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — Joy Behar and ABC were silent Thursday after an old photo resurfaced of “The View” co-host using makeup to darken her skin for a Halloween costume, the latest flashpoint in a series of blackface scandals making national headlines.Friday, February 8, 2019

It's great that members of Congress have located specific legislative language permitting the president to build a border wall, but I'm wondering: Has anybody read the Constitution?Friday, February 8, 2019

As things stand now, a House and Senate conference committee is the only hope that Democrats and Republicans can reach agreement on border security and avoid another government shutdown. The negotiations -- such as they are, for a committee that has met briefly only once in more than a week -- are ostensibly between Republicans and Democrats. But well-informed Republicans believe it is another set of talks -- internal talks among Democrats -- that will determine whether the committee succeeds and a shutdown is averted.Thursday, February 7, 2019

Americans don't usually think of technical professionals as "guest workers," yet at any one time, there are more than a half-million foreigners holding tech jobs in the U.S. They are here thanks to the H-1B visa program. H-1B, so the official spiel goes, addresses an alleged shortage of "highly skilled" Americans to fill jobs "requiring specialized knowledge."Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Sen. Kamala Harris committed a most unusual gaffe at her CNN town hall the other night -- not by misspeaking about one of her central policy proposals, but by describing it accurately.Monday, February 4, 2019

Tuesday night Donald J. Trump, in an ancient and revered ritual, will stride through the center of the chamber of the House of Representatives, stop and greet the lawmakers who arrived early enough to claim prized aisle seats, and then will perform one of the few specific duties set out for the president in the Constitution. He will assess the state of the union and then set out his priorities for the coming year.Saturday, February 2, 2019

Assiduous readers of my column know that I have frequently made the point that America's immigration policies benefit only three groups of people: 1) rich Americans with a lot of employees, 2) the immigrants themselves, and 3) their grandmothers back in Chiapas.Friday, February 1, 2019

Saturday is Groundhog Day. It is the day when many eyes will turn to Gobbler's Knob, a wooded hill a couple of miles outside Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. A man in a top hat will pull a hibernating groundhog out of a simulated tree trunk. If the rodent sees his shadow, then we'll have six more weeks of winter. If not, then spring comes early. Either way, Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) may bite the handler. It's happened.Thursday, January 31, 2019

A House-Senate conference committee is beginning work on a package of border security policies that, it is hoped, can win the support of both Democrats and Republicans. The final product is certain to include several measures that already have full, bipartisan approval: more immigration judges, more technology to detect illegal drugs at ports of entry, more humanitarian aid for migrants in custody, etc.Wednesday, January 30, 2019

It's hard to count the half-truths, warped symbolism and abuse of logic that plunged our country into a government shutdown. Sure, blatant lies will do it, but these other players are worse because they are sneaky.Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The teachers strike in the second-largest school district in the country ended Tuesday, so, according to local media, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has returned his attention to running for president.Monday, January 28, 2019

(AP) — Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report.Saturday, January 26, 2019

The teachers strike in the second-largest school district in the country ended Tuesday, so, according to local media, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has returned his attention to running for president.Saturday, January 26, 2019

The divided government of 2019 is a mirror image of the divided government of 2011. Back then, Democrats controlled the White House and Senate, while Republicans had recently taken control of the House with a big victory in the 2010 midterms.Friday, January 25, 2019

It started during the midterm campaign. Democrats stopped talking about Donald Trump all the time. Now presidential hopefuls are doing the same. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, once a relentless sparring partner on Twitter, all but ignores Trump's goading comments.Thursday, January 24, 2019

Several months into the Trump administration, I started running a daily "Border Wall Construction Update" on Twitter, announcing how many miles of the wall had been completed that day and how many miles since the inauguration. It was always the same numbers: 0 and 0, respectively.Thursday, January 24, 2019

An outbreak of measles four years ago at Disneyland focused attention on a growing health menace -- the refusal of parents to vaccinate their children. The threat has gone international. The World Health Organization has just named the anti-vaccination movement among the 10 biggest global health crises.Monday, January 21, 2019

He was, like Calvin Coolidge, an introvert. He was, like Theodore Roosevelt, a battler. He was, like Bill Clinton, a policy wonk. He was, like Donald Trump, a polarizing figure. He was, like Warren Harding, a scoundrel. He was, like John F. Kennedy, a dreamer. He was, like Lyndon Johnson, a prisoner of Vietnam. He was, like Woodrow Wilson, a student of the presidency. He was, like George H.W. Bush, an experienced master of government. He was, like William Howard Taft, a reluctant practitioner of the political arts. He was, like Herbert Hoover, a tragic figure.Saturday, January 19, 2019

She was my daughter's godmother. She was my friend. We knew her from politics, not Hollywood: She was close to "Lady Bird" Johnson and her legendary press secretary, Liz Carpenter. We had no family in California. And she fell in love with my beautiful baby.Friday, January 18, 2019

By finally returning to the issue that won him the election, President Trump once again has a winning hand. That's why we're hearing so much about "white supremacy" this week.Thursday, January 17, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border would be "immoral." Instead, she favors something she calls a "technological wall." Another top House Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn, calls it a "smart wall."Wednesday, January 16, 2019

The partial government shutdown has forced some federal workers to move money around to pay for food and rent. No surprise there. What's shocking is the many who don't have the money to move. They have no financial cushion to cover even one month's worth of ordinary expenses.Monday, January 14, 2019

TWIN MOUNTAIN, N.H. -- When, 120 years ago, the New Hampshire poet Edna Dean Proctor saluted this state's "cliffs, her meads, her brooks afoam" and spoke elegiacally of the "white-robed heights" of its mountains, she identified perhaps the mostly enduring characteristic of New Hampshire -- its worship of the outside.Saturday, January 12, 2019

Now that Trump has finally turned to the campaign promise that won him the election -- build a wall and deport illegals -- the Democrats, the media and even most Republicans are hysterical.Friday, January 11, 2019

Newly sworn-in Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib electrified progressives with her passionate declaration that she and her colleagues will "impeach the motherf---er" -- the "motherf---er," of course, being President Trump.Wednesday, January 9, 2019

The media are trying to convince Trump that if he abandons the wall, he'll be a statesman, so that as soon as he folds, they can start making fun of him as an untrustworthy liar.Thursday, January 3, 2019

A new medical device may change almost everything we think about making babies. It may also sweep away the current controversy over abortion while creating new ethical dilemmas. We speak of the artificial womb.Wednesday, January 2, 2019

In 2006, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, which mandated the construction of multilayer pedestrian fencing along about 600 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. It passed with big, bipartisan majorities: 283 votes in the House and 80 in the Senate. Some top Democrats who are still in the Senate today supported the fence: Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Debbie Stabenow and Sherrod Brown.Wednesday, January 2, 2019

The Constitution establishes impeachment as the means of removal of the president by Congress. As we discover each time we go down this road, "high crimes and misdemeanors" means pretty much whatever the House and Senate think they do, which is to say it is a political standard.Monday, December 31, 2018

Wander the twinkling streets of Manhattan in this holiday season and marvel. Not at the wondrous store windows, dressed-up partygoers and festive music out of every speaker. To those used to it, the spectacle repeats every December. The marvel this year is that the celebrating crowds, thicker than ever, are seemingly oblivious to the dangerous chaos enveloping the national security apparatus.Saturday, December 22, 2018

They emerged from the dark side of the moon at a dark moment in American history, and with one click of a Hasselblad 500E camera and 10 verses from the Book of Genesis, three explorers, farther from their home planet than any humans had ventured before, made a statement of peace on Earth and goodwill to man that has endured for a half-century.Saturday, December 22, 2018

A federal judge in Texas just threw out the Affordable Care Act root and branch. If the decision were to survive legal challenges, an estimated 17 million Americans could lose their health coverage. Uncounted others would face monstrous premium hikes as protections for pre-existing conditions vanish.Thursday, December 20, 2018

If you were elected president after decades of politicians doing nothing about the millions of illegals pouring into our country every year, committing crimes, dealing drugs, driving drunk, molesting children and killing Americans like Kate Steinle, and your central campaign promise -- repeated every day -- was to build a wall, wouldn't you have spent the entirety of your transition period working on getting it done?Thursday, December 20, 2018

The sentencing of former Trump White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on a single charge of lying to the FBI turned into a dramatic scene in a Washington, D.C., courthouse Tuesday. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan excoriated Flynn for what is called uncharged conduct -- that is, for crimes which Flynn has not been formally accused of committing.Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Respected news sources have described those 16 televised minutes of shouting between Donald Trump and "Chuck and Nancy" as an "altercation" and a "lurid" exchange. To New York ears, it was just a discussion.Monday, December 17, 2018

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The state of nature before civilization. The Austro-Hungarian Empire. Financial instability. Politics in Brazil. Refugees from Honduras. The philosophy of the Canadian thinker Charles Taylor. Paul von Hindenburg. The perils of automation. A French railway car. Thomas Hobbes. Swings in the stock market. The genocide of Armenians. The Reichstag fire. How Costco packages the milk it sells at its warehouse stores. The two times his car fish-tailed on the highway.Saturday, December 15, 2018

It often starts off easy. For me it did. An elderly friend needed some help with food shopping and dealing with the cable company. He has no family to speak of, and his close friends have died. Pushing 90, his thinking had obviously slowed, but he could still shave, bathe and dress.Friday, December 14, 2018

Prosecutors investigating President Trump made big news recently, but it wasn't about Russia. Rather, in their sentencing recommendation for fixer Michael Cohen, lawyers with the U.S.Friday, December 14, 2018

This week, I will provide readers with a FREE excerpt from "Resistance Is Futile! How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind" in order to prove that if you'd bought the book two months ago, you'd already understand the rules of the game. Now that Democrats are about to take control of the House, this is the only book you'll need until President Trump is out of office.Thursday, December 13, 2018

I spent more than a year working to beat him. I thought his campaign manager was about the most unethical person I'd ever met. I knew that the fish rots from the head. I was not a big fan of George H.W. Bush's.Friday, December 7, 2018

The press in America is even worse than we imagine. We sense that they're biased and stunningly incompetent. They are those things, but so much more. Our media's version of the news is mathematically and precisely the opposite of the truth.Thursday, December 6, 2018

Michael Flynn has been waiting for more than a year to be sentenced. The retired three-star Army general, who spent 24 days as the Trump White House national security adviser, pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to lying to the FBI in the Trump-Russia investigation. He agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.Thursday, December 6, 2018

Rarely has a president been identified so closely with his wife. That Barbara Bush never pursued a big-league career made her high profile even more remarkable. Nor did she fashion herself into an icon of elegance and glamour. She rose to prominence for simply being the partner-in-life of George H.W. Bush.Monday, December 3, 2018

Long ago and far away -- in 1987 and in New Hampshire, to be precise -- a promising candidate for the White House was hounded out of the presidential campaign because he was seen in his townhouse with a 29-year-old woman. It was a political drama then, and it is a film drama now.Saturday, December 1, 2018

Republicans and Democrats both battle over party doctrine and control. The difference with the Democrats is that their discontents often don't stop fighting after the results are in. They continue the hostilities rather than unite in common cause with fellow Democrats whom they disdainfully call "the establishment."Thursday, November 29, 2018

For those of us who were ecstatic the night Donald Trump was elected president, who watch election night videos over and over again, it used to be easy to defend him against the charge that he is just a BS-ing con man who would say anything to get elected.Thursday, November 29, 2018

The news is filled with images of migrants massing at the U.S-Mexico border in California. Why haven't they been able to enter the United States? Because a physical barrier prevents them from doing so.Wednesday, November 28, 2018

It's roughly the three-week anniversary of CNN reporter Jim Acosta repeatedly telling President Donald Trump at a press conference that the migrant caravan is "hundreds and hundreds of miles away" and "not an invasion," and objecting to a campaign ad that showed migrants climbing border walls -- "they're not going to be doing that."Tuesday, November 27, 2018

FRANCONIA NOTCH, N.H. -- Jeremy Belknap, credited with being the first American historian, said the natural beauty of this state had the ability "to soothe and to enrapture." Timothy Dwight, a Yale president who traveled among the peaks of New Hampshire more than 200 years ago, called the vistas here "sublime." Alden Partridge, sometimes known as the first extreme hiker, said the area "appeared to me so strangely illustrative of the original state of chaos."Saturday, November 24, 2018

The recent election suggested -- and subsequent polls showed -- that a public happy with the economy under Donald Trump is nevertheless very unhappy with the man himself. It took a massive amount of discontent with the president's character and conduct for voters to punish his party at a time of low unemployment, rising wages and quarterly growth exceeding 3 percent.Saturday, November 24, 2018